The key to eating well even when you can’t face another trip to the market is having a well-stocked kitchen. Put these on your always-have list: Frozen peas. Lemon. Parmesan cheese. Plenty of pasta. Pancetta.

Pancetta sounds a lot fancier than what it is: cured (but not smoked) pork belly — for all intents and purposes, bacon. Pancetta is milder in flavor than traditional bacon, though, which is what makes it so great — when used carefully, it adds heft to a dish without overwhelming it. You can find it at your favorite butcher for about 10-18 bucks a pound, depending on the source. Pick up a pound – it keeps for ages, and you’ll use it.

The nice thing about pancetta is the bang for the buck – it doesn’t take a lot to work its magic. That pound you bought will last for several meals.

Call me outdated, old fashioned, out of touch (you wouldn’t be the first) but I think dinner without some potatoes on the side isn’t really dinner.

Chips, fries, mashers, bakers, whatever. It’s all about the spuds.

Here’s a very simple way to make a mess of potatoes that everyone can dig into. This recipe makes enough for six people as a side dish, but if there are only two of you, make the whole batch anyway and watch them disappear.

1. Rich flavor, which comes from using quality ingredients and careful prep.
2. Supple texture, which comes from using quality ingredients and careful prep.

Isn’t it nice when you can kill two birds with the same stone(s)?

Both parts of the equation start at point of purchase. You can make do with grocery store meat, but you can do much better with meat sourced from a local butcher and ground to order (no secret here: I love Oliver’s in Capitol Hill). Believe it or not, it won’t cost that much more (maybe a buck a pound), and it’s an errand you can get done in minutes.

Working on next week’s Denver Post Food section here at home last night. I had torn out from InStyle a picture and quote from Dita Von Teese, Marilyn Manson’s ex-wife and burlesque star.

Turns out she loves chicken pot pie, but all I could find was a Twitpic of her efforts on a pink stove. By then it was dinner time, so I whipped up my own quick(ish) version.

Sauté chicken and whatever veggies you want/have in butter. Sprinkle with a quarter-cup flour, stir. Add liquids. I used about a quarter-cup white wine, 3 cups chicken broth and a half-cup whole milk. I love marjoram, so I used that and some thyme, along with seasoned salt and black and white pepper. Simmer until thick, about 15 minutes.

So I put some heat under my favorite cast iron skillet and started scrounging. I came up with a half-stick of sopressata, an onion, a can of chick peas, a bag of farro, some chicken stock, a few crumbles of roasted kale, and some parmesan cheese. I started chopping.

First, the sopressata, cut into little batons, cooked until rendered and barely crisp. Then onion, chopped and tossed in with a drizzle of olive oil. Next, a handful of farro, stirred and coated with the oil. A splash of stock. A stir. Another splash of stock, another stir, another splash, cooking the farro risotto-style until it was al-dente. Chickpeas, drained and added to the skillet, until they were hot, too. Parmesan, swiped through the microplane. Crisp kale, crumbled over the top. A few gratings of lemon rind and a squirt of lemon juice to finish. Dinner, done, just as Patsy capped off “Foolin’ Around.”

Consider: They add to just about every supper, from fish stew to meatloaf to pasta with tomato sauce. Put a bowl of toasted breadcrumbs on the table, and sprinkle them over the top of whatever’s on your plate, and you’ve just added an extra, irresistible layer of flavor and texture to your meal. People will cheer.

Plain breadcrumbs, tossed with melted butter and toasted for just a few minutes on a sheet pan, are perfect. Or, you can doctor them up with chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, oregano, you name it), or if you’re feeling extra crafty, use garlic-infused olive oil instead of melted butter.

One thing that kale chips do have in common with Fritos is that they make good happy-hour snacks. They also look great floating on top of a bowl of potato soup (hot or cold). And they take seasoning like a champ: This basic recipe calls for salt, but a little chili powder, a dash of celery seed, and, believe it or not, a pinch or two of sugar are nice too. (If you’re using sugar, add it after the kale has cooked but before it has cooled.)Read more…

I know, I know, it’s going to be around 1,000 degrees in Denver this weekend. So why am I advocating a bowl of soup?

Because this soup is light, soothing, peppery and cool, and besides it’s a recipe from Richard Grausman.

If anyone can lay claim to being the eminence grise of French cooking in America, it’s Monsieur Grausman, who, after earning the Grand Diplome from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 1967 (where he was a favorite of proprietress Madame Brassart) founded the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), an expansive and long-lasting nonprofit dedicated to helping underserved high school students prepare for careers in the hospitality business.